Thursday, December 20, 2007

Work is good. While the ease of work changed in the fall, man was made for work.

I have written how work is despised in our day, a day in which the ideal job for most has short hours, high pay, and little demand mentally or physically on the “worker”, who of course, has no need of taking any work home on “their time.” Is it any wonder when I speak to friends who have employees, they often complain about finding and keeping good employees?

As a dad of five boys and four girls, I consider it a duty to teach my children to work, not only to prepare them for life, but because work is a good gift from God. So when I needed firewood the other day, I brought my boys instead of trying to get my father-in-law's power splitter going. Those boys needed to learn to split and load wood and feel the tiredness involved. Peter (12) loaded the truck himself, neatly, tightly and with enough wood to make the truck squat down a bit. Jon was introduced to the work and art of splitting a log into sticks for the stove. I wish all young men had that privilege. I do pity the young men who live in town and have their heat come through a gas pipe or electric line.

As part of our children's schooling this year, we have been requiring them to read (or listen to) a devotional book written for older boys, called Created for Work by Bob Shultz. Now maybe l like the book because Mr. Shultz is a carpenter who cares a great deal about building the kingdom of God. Or maybe I like it because he combines practical illustrations of scriptural commands regarding work. Topics range from putting art in your work to not being afraid to get dirty in your work, to God's Word being the plumb line for our behavior.

The practical wisdom combined with the Biblical insight is a joy to think about. Published by Great Expectations Books Co. this volume is a wonderful tool to help teach your sons and daughters about God's gift of work.

1 comment:

Archie
said...

Tim,

Heather and I just purchased this book kind of by "accident" a couple of months ago. I picked it up a few weeks ago and started going through it to see if it might be a good book to work through with the boys in a couple of years. Although it has a couple of doctrinal hiccups, the book is a gem. I totally agree.

Now, if I could just teach myself to work to my expectations everyday...